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Publisher's Summary

Shortlisted for the Arthur C Clarke Award.Dawn breaks over Vancouver and no-one has slept the night before, or almost no one. A few people, perhaps one in ten thousand can still sleep, and they've all shared the same strange, golden dream. A handful of children still sleep as well, but what they're dreaming remains a mystery.After six days of absolute sleep deprivation, psychosis will set in. After four weeks, the body will die. In the interim, panic ensues and a bizarre new world arises in which those previously on the fringes of society take the lead. One couple experience a lifetime in a week as he continues to sleep, she begins to disintegrate before him, and the new world swallows the old one whole...NOD.

Excellent story and good performance

The performance was almost perfect. The tone is a little bland, but he's consistent, and diverse in his characters. The story was excellent and didn't waste any time getting to the point. The only thing that I didn't like was the narrow focus of the story, considering the scope of the issue. There was much more story to tell, and at the end you are left wanting more of it. I would definitely like to see more stories based in this world.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful

By
Kaggy
on
07-05-14

A strange and fascinating end to it all

This is a story told from the viewpoint of a man who can sleep when the rest of humanity has lost the ability. It starts gently with his girlfriend complaining about a restless night but then becomes completely gripping with the realisation that something terrible is going on in the world. I was awestruck by the description of how quickly society would disintegrate if such an event happened. This is a tale of madness and chaos and the descent is totally credible.

The main character is the perfect commentator. He is a misanthrope who claims to dislike people and yet his compassionate description of his girlfriend's horrible disintegration is very moving. On top of that, he is an expert on words and their often mysterious origins, and his musings on what is going on gives an almost poetic feel to this tale.

The narrator is fantastic. I loved his reading of a Canadian pretending to have an English accent.

I haven't found any other books by this author so am assuming this is first published novel. I hope he is very quickly inspired to publish another one.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful

By
Ross McDougall
on
06-23-17

I waited for a zig, it zagged. I wish it hadn't

This was a bit of an underwhelming book; I'm not sure if my expectations were misguided, the synopsis was exaggerated or it was just pitched at a younger reader. At any rate, I didn't find it very appealing or engaging beyond the premise.

A few times in the book, Barnes has the protagonist Paul reference that what we're reading is his memoir that he's writing in his final days. Given that it's kind of a diary written by a character, some of the stuff included in describing elements of the world and their experience that a reader would normally let go through to the keeper stands out as gratuitous at worst, and illogical to include at best.

The premise of nearly the whole planet not being able to sleep is a really cool one, and it was a determining factor for me to get the book. I feel like Barnes has missed the mark a little on this, but the premise carries a lot of the other issues. The book turns into a post-apocalyptic societal re-build which doesn't land completely because I just couldn't believe that the planet would completely collapse so quickly.

Tim Beckman read the audio edition for me, and it was a great performance. Nod is a good way to escape reality for a few hours, because it felt very far from reality in my mind.